Donald F Featherstone WAR GAMES First Edition Second Print 1965
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Donald F Featherstone WAR GAMES First Edition Second Print 1965
First edition, second impression (reprint) hardback of the book that launched modern wargaming WAR GAMES: Battles and Manoeuvres with Model Soldiers, by Donald F. Featherstone. Foreword by Brigadier Peter Young. Published by Stanley Paul & Co. Ltd, London, in 1965. It was first published in 1962.The book is in very good condition (Cream colour cloth boards with red & black lettering on spine which has light browning to the edges) with slight wear to the illustrated dust jacket, which is covered with an irremovable mylar sheet and not price clipped (minor chipping to spine edges, slight creasing and soiling to the mylar edges, back jacket inside flap taped to board, and a tiny piece is missing from the front top edge). Internally, the pages are clean and tight and there are no tears. There is a previous owner's inscription on the front endpaper.
Donald F. Featherstone (1918 2013) was a British author of more than forty books on wargaming and military history. During the Second World War, Featherstone joined the Royal Armoured Corps. He published his war experiences in Lost Tales. Originally a physiotherapist, Featherstone was first introduced to wargaming by reading HG Wells' Little Wars and his first opponent was Tony Bath in 1955.
In 1960 the two of them began editing the UK version of the War Game Digest, a seminal wargaming newsletter started by Jack Scruby. Featherstone expressed disapproval of a trend towards articles "attempting to spread an aura of pseudo-science over what is a pastime". He started his own periodical in 1962, the Wargamers' Newsletter. After a discussion with Paddy Griffith, Featherstone realised that wargaming as a hobby could considerably aid in understanding military history. [6] Featherstone appeared on the BBC to promote the hobby. In 1966, he organised the first UK wargames convention.
War Games was largely responsible for turning a somewhat obscure hobby into a popular pastime across the world.
"For centuries battles with model soldiers have been fought by Kings and Generals for military purposes, and for pleasure by boys from nine to ninety years of age. The model soldier possesses unlimited courage on the war games table and, ably led by an amateur General with a realistic set of rules, he can win great victories or be magnificent in defeat.
As a means of military training, war games have long ago proved their worth, but it is as a form of skilful relaxation that the subject is considered in this book. Grand strategy can be practised on maps, complicated tactical manoeuvres attempted on the realistic table-top battlefield, and colourful armies of miniature soldiers can be made to fire accurately, attack forcibly in flank or rear and hold out grimly against vastly superior numbers.
Sometimes called 'Chess with a Thousand Pieces', war games can be simple affairs played on the dining room table with a handful of soldiers, or highly complicated battles involving two thousand or more troops fighting to realistic rules on large tables with hills, valleys, rivers, woods, villages, and even towns with streets, factories and stations."
Contents include: Foreword; Preface by Donald Featherstone; What are War Games?; Model Soldiers for War Games; How to Lay Out a Battlefield; Organizing a Campaign; How to Start a War Game; Ancient Warfare Rules and Demonstration Battle - 'The Battle of Trimsos'; Horse-and-Musket Warfare Rules and Demonstration Battle - 'Action in the Plattville Valley'; Modern Warfare Rules and Demonstration Battle - 'Tank and Infantry Action on the St. James Road'; Solo War Games; Appendix 1- Sources of Supply for Model soldiers; Appendix 2 - Rules for 'Close War'; Appendix 3 - Further Aids to War Gamers; Appendix 4 - Books and Literature Dealing with War Games; Appendix 5 - The Lionel Tarr Periscope.
158 pages. Illustrated with several black & white photographs.
ISBN: n/a
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Donald F Featherstone WAR GAMES First Edition Second Print 1965